After Pisa, it’s confirmed Venezia have also gone bankrupt and will leave professional football, while Avellino are set to follow.

All clubs in Italy must pass strict financial tests of their stability before they are allowed to register for the new season.

Several sides failed the Covisoc criteria and have no option but to file bankruptcy and begin again from the Serie D amateur League.

This week Pisa, relegated from Serie B in a dramatic final round of the 2008-09 campaign, declared they would be dropping out of professional football.

Now Venezia, who famously did so well with a young Alvaro Recoba in their ranks in 1999, have gone under.

“Despite the extraordinary efforts of the team and the authorities, it has not been possible to register the club for the Lega Pro season,” read a statement from Mayor Massimo Cacciari.

“It is hugely disappointing and a painful end to the difficulties that were sparked by President Maurizio Zamparini’s abandonment of the club.”

Zamparini, now leading Palermo, walked out on Venezia in 2002 when he blamed the Mayor for failing to give the all-clear to a new stadium.

The cull is not over yet, as Avellino – relegated from Serie B last month – are also on the verge of bankruptcy.

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/jul11j.html

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It's terrible how these towns will not have professional football clubs for the forseeable future. Italian teams at Serie B level and below struggle to survive simply because they don't own their stadiums, don't attract crowds anyway and are taxed to death by the government. In the recession it isn't surprising at all to see so many go to the wall.

Sad to see.

i think we could see this happening here soon

Really sad.

Two more:

Treviso and Samb bankrupt



Treviso and Sambenedettese have joined Avellino, Pisa and Venezia in going bankrupt, as Lega Pro President Mario Macalli explains why.

This week has seen several clubs fail the Covisoc tests of financial stability and have therefore not been allowed to register for the new season.

Already Avellino, Pisa and Venezia had declared they would not be lodging an appeal, now Treviso and Sambenedettese have been added to that list of sides that must begin again from the Serie D amateur league.

It is a particularly bitter blow considering three of them – Avellino, Pisa and Treviso – were in Serie B last term, but it seems their relegation proved decisive.

“It is always painful to lose clubs, in this case some very glorious ones,” sighed Lega Pro (formerly Serie C) President Macalli.

“I can say that if the clubs coming down from Serie B had remained in that division, they would have continued playing even with 10m Euros of debt.

“It is different for us in Lega Pro, where even 100,000 Euros is enough to send you under.”

Treviso were in Serie A only four years ago and are declared bankrupt in the club’s centenary, while Avellino are 97 years old.

If the exclusion of these five clubs is confirmed, then the appeals to take their place will begin with the likes of Alghero, Barletta, Igea, Legnano, Pro Sesto and Vibonese pushing for promotion.

Other options are Perugia, Catanzaro and Pistoiese, but they too have financial worries.

http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/jul12p.html

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Awful. There will be no-one left at this rate, the rules are draconian.

Blog: Calcio in crisis



With so many clubs going to the wall in Italy Charles Ducksbury believes it is time that the Lega Calcio took action

Messina, Treviso, Venezia and Como may not be the household names in world football, but all have something in common. All have experienced the glitz and glamour of Serie A in the last few years, but more importantly all have ceased to be and had to re-form in the underworld of Serie D and beyond due to financial difficulties.

On top of these sides, Sambenedettese, Avellino, Pisa, and Pistoise have disappeared from C1, and Ivrea and Biellese from C2 just this year. Add Spezia, Martina, CastelNuovo, Teramo, Lucchese, Massese, Nuorese and Torres from last year, and that's 18 professional teams that have vanished from the ranks in the last 2 years.

However, the reason for this happening is different for the bigger and smaller clubs. The main reason for the smaller clubs is the problem regarding attendances. Compared to the equivalent League in England, Italy trails far behind. Not a single club in England had a League attendance below 1,000 last season, yet in Italy many clubs at C2 level couldn't average over that same number over a season.

This is not a criticism of Italy or it's clubs, however when clubs average the small amounts they do, why is money spent on transfers and paying higher wages when that money should be spent on keeping the club running? The high number of clubs going bust must surely tell the Lega Calcio that sanctions on wages in comparison to revenue need to be put in place, otherwise more clubs will be lost in the future.

In contrast, bigger clubs are going into meltdown because it's too easy to re-form under a different banner and progress back up through the Leagues. Clubs like Messina and Pisa are too big to be playing in the lower Leagues for too long, so they spend large amounts while in B "chasing the dream" with no real deterrent. If they go bust, they'll just re-start and be back where they started in 4 or 5 years.

However, fan pressure does mean Presidents over-spend trying to move their projects ahead of schedule, causing a huge deficit between incomings and outgoings. Again, the Lega Calcio needs to be harder on these clubs, perhaps sending them all the way to the bottom of the ladder, rather than just to Serie D. That way, rather than taking a couple of years to climb back, it would take teams 8 or 9 years, assuming they win promotion every season.

The time has arrived for the authorities to sit up and do something quick, because Italy is losing many clubs, and while some such as Como and Messina will re-appear in time, is it so un-realistic to think that Torres or Teramo will never re-surface?

http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/cd7.html

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It's too easy for the owners to gamble in the knowledge that it is pretty easy to start again, the chance the name from AC XXXX , to XXXX Calcio and then buy back the ground, trophies and history.